TUSD – Physics Team

How are modern cars designed to keep you and your family safe in a collision?

The 5-week-long physics unit was designed to expand students’ ways of making sense of the key science concepts of momentum and impulse while engaging students in various scientific practices, such as developing and using models, constructing an explanation, and arguing with
evidence.

The co-designed unit begins by inviting students to draw a dream car for their loved one. Students are positioned as car designers and engineers. Their designs need to include safety features that can protect their loved one in a collision. In this process, they generate questions to learn more about what makes a car safe during a collision.

Students learn that 100 years ago, the most popular car was the Ford Model-T in 1919, and the most popular car in 2019 was the Toyota Camry. Through graphs and images, students observe different fatality rates per vehicle mile driven and changes in car design overtime. Students are invited to figure out why the two cars showed different fatality rates in collisions in relation to design features. Throughout the unit, students engage in the engineering process of designing and refining safety features in a car while learning about the disciplinary core ideas.